Kansas State University

As I think about our faculty and students and about all they have accomplished during the last year, I feel a great deal of pride.

We continue to refine and update our curriculum to meet needs of students in a changing mental health environment and in an increasingly competitive job market.  We continue to receive external funding for various projects, including Nancy O’Conner’s Home Based Family Therapy and Smart Start projects.  We are able to provide research assistantships to many of our students through these funded projects.

I know we are making a difference in the lives of families we see here at the Family Center and also in the lives of those our alumni are seeing.  The faculty and students are conducting research that also has the potential to make a difference in people’s lives.  We are surrounded by a warm and caring community in the MFT program, our school, our college and in Manhattan!  What a great place to be! Continue reading “From Sandra Stith, program director” →

Joyce Baptist, Ph.D., associate professor

Last spring I began my responsibilities as editor-in-chief for the Journal of Feminist Family Therapy. We are transitioning the journal onto an electronic submission and review platform. I am well into the study on Resilience in National Guard families and began the second round of data collection at two summer camps funded by the Department of Defense.

My study on emerging adults in Malaysia is in its second phase examining relationship maintenance and relational violence. While in Malaysia working on research in May, I provided clinical consultation to two counseling centers. The increasing number of couples seeking relational therapy in Malaysia is promising – it may be the beginning of a trend towards reduced stigma of mental health services. Continue reading “Meet the faculty” →

Alumni fellow combines family therapy and medicine

Elizabeth Purcell-Keith, or Dr. Elizabeth as patients and co-workers call her, was the College of Human Ecology’s Alumni Fellow for 2013.  At K-State she completed her undergraduate and master’s work in family studies and child development and received her Ph.D. in MFT in 1979.

She works in the neonatal unit as a medical family therapist and crisis intervention specialist at the Medical City’s Children Hospital in Dallas.  Dr. Elizabeth provides support, care, and stability for families with children who are facing life-threatening illnesses and has been doing so for over thirty years now.  Her involvement in this specialized area began when she started working as a staff nurse in the newborn nursery and labor and delivery. Her experiences as a nurse showed her that although the babies were provided with wonderful treatment, parents were left out in the hall crying, not knowing what was going on with their children. Continue reading “College honors two alumni” →

Jayashree George, M.S. – I am an artist, art therapist and family therapist, and am in the process of setting up my private practice in Emporia, KS. As I work towards a show of my paintings, I continue to write for scholarly journals, teach on an adjunct basis, and present workshops on diversity/anti-oppressive work and fostering creativity through the arts. I enjoy being a wife and mom.

Patricia Barros, M.S. I have started the PhD program in MFT in January.  My husband and I continue to experience a our “long-distance” marriage, and this has given us interesting lessons.

Nathan Hardy, M.S. – I am a doctoral student at K-State working for Jared Anderson as a graduate research assistant. Post-graduation (2 more years!), I hope to be in a faculty position at a Marriage and Family Therapy program. One of the first things our family will do after graduation is to take a trip to Disneyland. Continue reading “Where are they now? Connecting with our recent graduates” →